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The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (book)
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a single-player roleplaying gamebook written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, illustrated by Russ Nicholson and originally published in August 1982 by Puffin Books. It was later republished by Wizard Books in 2002. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the first in the series in both the Puffin (ISBN 0-14-031538-1) and Wizard (ISBN 1-84046-387-2) series. Creation Background Blurb In this book the player takes the role of an adventurer on a quest to find the treasure of a powerful Warlock, hidden deep within Firetop Mountain. Through the stories of nearby villagers, the player is told that the treasure is stored in a chest with two locks (although, actually, there are three), the keys to which are guarded by various creatures within the dungeons. The player must collect keys while exploring the dungeons in order to open the chest at the end of the adventure, although not all of the keys - only a certain three - will fit the locks. The player must travel through the entrance of the mountain, guarded by Goblins, to reach a river. The player must cross the river, by the ferry service or by other means, to reach the inner chambers. The player will have to navigate the Maze of Zagor, survive an encounter with a Dragon, and finally face the Warlock Zagor in order to reach the treasure test. If the player defeats the Warlock and has the correct keys then they will become the owner of the Warlock's riches and spell book and will successfully complete the adventure. If the player reaches this point without the correct keys then the adventure will end in failure. Rules ''The Warlock of Firetop Mountain sets out most of the basic rules that would be used throughout the Fighting Fantasy series (see Game System for greater detail). Unique Rules Players can only eat Provisions when allowed by the instructions on a page, and only one meal can be eaten at a time. In later books players can eat at any time outside of battle. Also, while a player had only one Potion, it contained two doses. Equipment List *Sword *Leather Armour *Backpack *Lantern *10 Provisions *Choice of one of three Potions (see Game System for generic fantasy setting choices) Cover and Illustrations Covers The original cover of the book was designed and illustrated by Peter Andrew Jones. The design of the cover was unusual for the time, in that book covers usually had the title along the top so they could be read on the 'step' shelves found in stores - Jones, however, left room for the title of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in the middle of the cover, much to the consternation of the publishers. In later printings Puffin used a different, though very similar, cover illustration, also created by Peter Andrew Jones. Interestingly, the later Dragon Cover Format printings of the book without the foil are credited as Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone present, the "present" appearing where it had not done so before. When the book was republished by Wizard the cover was once again re-worked, this time by Martin McKenna, who was asked to use the main elements from the original cover images but make them appear more modern. #Price of 15th Impression #Price of 34th Impression Illustrations The book's interior illustrations were created by Russ Nicholson (who would have also illustrated the cover had confusion over the content of the book and what was wanted from the illustration not required that he begin work on the interior illustrations immediately). The full-page illustrations in the book were accompanied with a caption giving the number of the paragraph depicted and a short extract from the text, a format which was only used again in the next two books, The Citadel of Chaos and The Forest of Doom. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain was also unique in that the final paragraph was given an extra full-page illustration. 25th Anniversary Edition *Published by Wizard Books (ISBN 978-1840468-37-3) *Publication: August 2nd, 2007 *Cover Art: Peter Andrew Jones *U.K. £8.99 *CAN. $20.00 To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the book that started the series in the first place, Wizard Books released a new edition which used Peter Andrew Jones's original (1982) wrap-around cover design of the first edition. The Anniversary Edition of the book was published in hardback, making it the only Fighting Fantasy book published this way. Blurb '''New Material' *The inside front cover has a gallery of all the different covers of the book (6 versions: 1982 (original edition - without number), 1983 (number in star), 1984 (green banner), 1987 (dragon with number), 1988 (dragon without number), 2002 (Wizard edition)) *1982: The Adventure Starts Here - A personal look back at the genesis of the series from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone *The Story of Fighting Fantasy - A brief overview of the history of the series to date *The First Draft of The Magic Quest - The first page to the original draft idea *Mapping the Mountain: Ian's First-Half Plan - Livingstone's hand-drawn plan of the first half of the mountain interior (up to the river) *The 'One True Way' Through Firetop Mountain - One possible solution to the book (labelled as possibly the 'optimum' way) *20 Little-Known Facts About Fighting Fantasy - Twenty facts about the series *The Fighting Fantasy Collection - A list of all the officially produced products for the series to date *A fold-out map of the interior of the mountain drawn by Nicholas Halliday Intertextual References *Like many of the early Fighting Fantasy books, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain did not contain many details about its setting and it was left to later books in the series and companion books to elaborate this. It later became established that the book was set in the fictional fantasy world of Titan, in the northern region of the continent of Allansia (a setting common to many of the Fighting Fantasy books). The location of Firetop Mountain was established as north of Darkwood Forest (the setting of the later Fighting Fantasy book The Forest of Doom). *The backstory of the titular Warlock, Zagor, was also elaborated on in later books. It was established that Zagor was once one of three pupils of an evil wizard called Volgera Darkstorm (the other two being Balthus Dire from the book The Citadel of Chaos and Zharradan Marr from the book Creature of Havoc). At the age of seventeen, the three pupils tired of learning and killed their teacher by magic. After this they separated, with Zagor travelling north to Firetop Mountain, a peak he had seen in Demon-sent dreams. Zagor took the mountain from the Dwarfs that occupied it, with a force of Orcs and undead creatures. It is established that, by the time of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Zagor is lord over the mountain, guarding the treasures he stole from the Dwarfs. *Zagor and Firetop Mountain also appear in The Trolltooth Wars by Steve Jackson. Clues to the location of the correct keys to Zagor's chest are revealed in the novel. Additionally the gamebook itself makes an appearance in a bookstore in the gamebook Appointment with F.E.A.R., written by Steve Jackson. A video game based on the book (also titled The Warlock of Firetop Mountain) was released in 1984 on a variety of platforms. Sequels *The book was followed by two sequels. The first, Return to Firetop Mountain, was written by Ian Livingstone and was the 50th Fighting Fantasy Gamebook, published in 1992 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Fighting Fantasy. In this book Zagor has been resurrected and must once again be defeated by the player. The second sequel Legend of Zagor, also written by Ian Livingstone, was the 54th Fighting Fantasy Gamebook. In this book the player, taking the role of one of four characters, must defeat Zagor to protect the land of Amarillia, to which he has been banished. After this came a short series of four novels based around Zagor, The Zagor Chronicles, which were written by Ian Livingstone and Carl Sargent. They feature the arrival of Zagor to the land of Amarillia and the battle to defeat him. They are related to Legend of Zagor, with many characters appearing in both the gamebook and the novels. Other Media Computer Game A computer game conversion of the book was produced by Crystal Computing and published by Puffin Books for the ZX Spectrum. e-Book *The Warlock of Firetop Mountain e-Book for the Palm Pilot Operating System was produced in 2003. Boardgame A boardgame based on the book was published by Games Workshop in 1986, designed by Steve Jackson. The box was illustrated by the original cover designer of the book, Peter Andrew Jones, and the interior was illustrated by Dave Andrews. The game involved the players travelling across the board to the treasure chest of the Warlock, finding the correct keys to unlock it along the way. The game used a similar score system to the book to measure the status of the players. Ornament Clarecraft fashioned a figurine of Zagor, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. d20 System Conversion There is a D20 System conversion by Myriador called The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Main Characters *Zagor Further Notes *A shorter, modified version of the gamebook appeared across issues 1 and 2 of Warlock magazine. *As well as the Special Limited and Standard Editions, the Wizard Books version was also published as a shortened sample adventure in an issue of the Cartoon Network Comic (Issue 68:December 2003), with a slightly different cover. See Also *''Appointment with F.E.A.R.'' *''Armies of Death'' *''Caverns of the Snow Witch'' *''City of Thieves'' *''Creature of Havoc'' *''Crypt of the Sorcerer'' *''Deathtrap Dungeon'' *''Eye of the Dragon'' *''Fighting Fantasy'' *''Freeway Fighter'' *''House of Hell'' *''Island of the Lizard King'' *''Legend of Zagor'' *''Return to Firetop Mountain'' *''Starship Traveller'' *''Temple of Terror'' *''The Citadel of Chaos'' *''The Forest of Doom'' *''Trial of Champions'' External Links *Character Sheet References * * * Official sites: * * * Magazines: * Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The 01 01 Category:FF01 Entries